The United Nations says nearly four million people in South Sudan are in dire need of food aid due to the conflict in the country.


Toby Lanzer, the UN humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan, said USD 1.3 billion is needed to address the crisis in the country.

Lanzer also stated that the conflict has had a profound effect on South Sudan’s economy and many of its citizens are living in distress.

Thousands of people, including aid workers and patients, have been forced to flee the violence in the country as government forces and rebels loyal to former vice president, Riek Machar, continue to fight for control in key areas despite a recent ceasefire between the two sides.

On January 23, South Sudan and the rebels signed a ceasefire agreement to end weeks of heavy fighting, which led to the death of thousands of people in the world’s youngest nation.

The violence broke out in the capital, Juba, on December 15, 2013, when President Salva Kirr accused his sacked deputy, Machar, of attempting to stage a coup.

The conflict soon turned into an all-out war between the army and defectors, with the violence taking on an ethnic dimension that pitted the president’s Dinka tribe against Machar’s Nuer ethnic group.

Aid groups say up to 10,000 people have lost their lives in the fighting and more than 700,000 people have been displaced due to the violence. Some 124,000 people have also fled to neighboring countries.